Kolkata: Bilateral trade between India and China fell during the first half of the current calendar year due to slowdown in the economies, a Chinese official said here on Friday.

Consul General of China in Kolkata Zhang Lizhong said China's trade with India accounted for 2 per cent of the country's external trade and between January to June 2012 bilateral trade was down four per cent at USD 34 billion.

During the period from January to May 2012, trade between the two nations dipped 2.8 per cent at USD 28.5 billion, he said at the MMC Chamber of Commerce & Industry here.

The decline was due to the current general slowdown in world trade, the Chinese envoy said.

The target volume for bilateral trade for 2015 is USD 100 billion. The volume registered in 2011 was USD 73.9 billion, he added.

Referring to the presence of Chinese companies in eastern India, he said 14,000 Indian employees were directly employed by 15 firms across 28 projects.

He said the firms faced problems initially as they were not acquainted with the local socio-economic environment. Chinese unskilled workers were not given work visas by India, he added.